◆Jigsaw method◆

 Jigsaw method: A sophisticated educational method employing the design experiment approach

 The Jigsaw Method was knitted by E. Aronson in order to promote collaborative learning. In this method, a long passage is divided into three parts, each of which is studied by each member of a group comprised of three. They collaborate in figuring out the total picture by exchanging what they studied, and such a process resembles the assembling of a jigsaw puzzle. The Jigsaw Method has recently been introduced into various training seminars in Japan. After each member studies a different case, instead of a fragment of a passage, he/she becomes a representative of the group specializing in a certain case and forms a jigsaw group with other members who studied other issues. Then, they examine if they have something in common, or there is any difference by comparing the cases that each member studied. Since nobody knows better than he/she as to the specific case he/she studied, he/she inevitably has to teach it to other members, which serves as a key point of this method. This method has been refined through being used in various situations according to the topic of material or organization of the groups.

*Click to see this page (a jigsaw puzzle). (broken link)

 A series of researches done by Ann Brown, a pioneer of learning sciences, played an important role in refining the Jigsaw Method (Miyake & Shirouzu, 2003, Chapter 5, Section 2). In order to proceed with her research, she stayed in a classroom, where she created an effective instruction method and implemented it. Then, she examined closely the timing of introducing the Jigsaw Method in order to improve effectiveness. At first she was interested in discovering factors which may influence this method, but gradually her interest moved to the development of the ability of the children in front of her. Miyake and Shirouzu state, "one could say she might have been in the period when the task for the pioneers of learning sciences had just evolved to the next stage." (p.74)

Research on learning psychology, which has reached such a practical level as indicated by the Jigsaw Method, seems directly useful for classroom practice. For your information, I added that A. Collins, a co-researcher of Brown, has developed the Jigsaw Method into instructional design theory as "Fostering learning communities." (Suzuki, 2005, refer Table 2)[Japanese only]

Links for reference

• Aronson's jigsaw Website (broken link)
  
  
  
• Collaborative Learning (Shingakusha School Network) [In Japanese]
  
  
  
  
• Knowledge gathers, as pieces of a puzzle do – the Jigsaw Method [In Japanese] (broken link)
   Session 7 of "Learning theory you can understand in five minutes: An e-mail magazine, 'Beating'" No. 18 issued by "BEAT," Benesse department of Education Advanced Technology, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo